Government warns opposition of holding summer centers [Archives:2005/854/Local News]

SANA'A- Some government officials last week warned political parties and charitable societies of holding summer centers for youth, exploiting them to achieve political goals, as they did over the last few years.

Undersecretary of Youth and Sports Ministry Ahmad al-Eshari said in a statement published by May 22 Newspaper, mouthpiece of the ruling party in its last Thursday's issue: ” the law bans political party activities among youths, and the summer centers include public activities that are supposed to operate under the law, as well as the specified goals for the activities of the youth.

For his part, Undersecretary of Endowments and Guidance Ministry, Sheikh Yahya al-Najjar, warned the political parties and the charitable societies of staging summer centers for youth, pointing out the local authorities are the responsible parties for preventing such activities.

The government warnings seem to coincide with preparations carried out by four ministries to hold 301 centers on July 7 in different governorates to accommodate nearly 60 thousand youths. These centers believed to adopt instigative programs are supervised by the People's General Congress.

The governmental program aims, according to the warning, to keep the youth away from the intellectual deviation and extremism and to establish concepts of national loyalty in their minds.

Over the last few years, all the summer centers were cited to serve interests of certain political parties and charitable societies, particularly as their activities were based on fanatic concepts and thoughts.
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